Jakhau


Jakhau is a village in Gujarat, western India. Administratively, it is under Abdasa Taluka, Kutch District, of Gujarat. Jakhau is 17 km by road west-southwest of Naliya, the taluka headquarters. Jakhau Salt, the port of Jakhau, is situated a further 15 km westwards.

History

The village and port are named after the legendary Jakh Botera who were shipwrecked on the Kutch coast and came ashore at Jakhau. Variously described as tall and fair-complexioned with an advanced culture, their traditional number is 72 with at least one woman. Their origins are obscure-but one school of thought is that they were of zerthotrians iraani or parsi origins and good at horsemenship, medicine and archery. One cruel king puanra is said to have been controlled/put to an end by them-thus they attained gods status in region.
In the Middle Ages, Jakhau was a thriving port and warehousing village. However, as Godia Creek silted up and ships increased in size, trade went to the dredged port at Mandvi instead and south to Bombay. Exports were mostly salt cotton, millet, and castor bean oil and later cloth and tobacco, while imports were mostly rice, lumber and dried fruit, and some sugar.
The 1998 Gujarat cyclone helped to further destroy the port. The major occupation is now fishing.

Demographics

In the 2001 census, the village of Jakhau had 4,076 inhabitants, with 2,032 males and 2,044 females, for a gender ratio of 1006 females per thousand males.